...HISTORY: IKEA is a globally famous home furnishing retailer. IKEA was founded by a 17 years old boy Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. It has grown rapidly and today it is the world's largest furniture retailer, known for its cost control, operational details and continuous product development, allowing it to lower its prices while continuing its global expansion. Since then, the IKEA Group has grown into an international retail brand with 131,000 co-workers in 41 countries generating annual sales of more than 24.7 billion EURO. IKEA carries a range of approximately 9,500 products, majority of which is flat-pack resulting in reduction in costs and packaging. This wide range is available in all IKEA stores and customers can order much of the range online through IKEA’s website. IKEA stores include restaurants and cafés serving typical Swedish food. They also have small food shops selling Swedish groceries. The biggest sales countries are Germany, USA, France, UK and Sweden. Competitive prices are one of the foundations of the IKEA concept and help to make customers want to buy from IKEA. This low price strategy is united with a wide range of well designed, useful products. IKEA’s products provide for every lifestyle and life stage of its customers, who come from all age groups and types of households. This is vital in times when the retail sector is depressed, as it increases IKEA’s potential market. I have selected The Home Depot for comparison with IKEA which are one of the largest...
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...and managerial staff, is dysfunctional and an unhealthy approach to business. The benefits of ethical and standardized social responsibility an enterprise incorporates are intrinsic to an organization’s image and can have an impact on employee morale (Wicks & Freeman, 2010). Reference: Wicks, A., & Freeman, E. (2010). Business ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. COMPLETE 1 Since Sigma is a small firm with limited resources, it must be selective in choosing customers so as to ensure the company can meet their needs effectively. How would you suggest that Sigma balance the need for continued growth with its desire to serve only those customers that it can satisfy completely? Sigma Marketing has been ahead its time from the marketing aspect for decades. Although the company will have to adjust to the external environment in order to have continued success. The case study did not seem to mention competition but the company has a niche which limits the competition they will face. Finding an unfilled need is the key to reducing or eliminating competition. Therefore, I do not...
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...Environmental Factors: IKEA Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 and now it is the world’s biggest retail furniture provider. Its prices are very competitive and it was the first company to provide products in flat packages. IKEA has 226 stores around the globe, and earned over $17.7 Billion of revenue as of august 2005. Its famous catalogue that is released on annual basis, accounts for 70% of total marketing communication. IKEA’s marketing, both global and domestic, is affected by a number of environmental factors. We will be discussing all those factors, affect of global economic interdependency, affect of trade agreements and other business practices, and material road and communication networks. Topics like social responsibility, ethics and actual law, cultural differences, and foreign corrupt practices act of 1997 will be discussed. Finally, we will go through effect of political systems, pressure of international relations and effect of technology on overall business. Influence of Global Economic Interdependence & Effect of Trade Practices and Agreements Trade agreements, business practices and the economy help in understanding the purchasing power of the customers. It means they work with earnings, prices, reserves, loans and GDP. These factors should be kept in mind when any organization decides to go global. They should carefully plan their marketing mix in accordance to the target consumers. Pricing is of prime importance here and should be according to prevalent...
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...6. Assessment Tasks Assessment Task 1: Assessment Task Case Study: IKEA: A Long March to the Far East Schedule Week 4 Performance Criteria: Outcomes Assessed 1.1,2.1,2.2, 4.1 Also addresses some elements of required skills and knowledge as shown in the Assessment Matrix Description: From its humble beginning as a small general retail store in a village situated in the south of Sweden, IKEA has grown into the world's largest furniture retailer with 279 stores in 36 countries today. Specialising in furniture and home decoration, IKEA has an annual turnover of 19.8 billion euros (source: IKEA, www.ikea.com, accessed 25/03/2012). The IKEA catalogue is printed in 52 editions with 25 languages, with a global distribution in excess of 160 million copies. IKEA sees the Far Asia as an emerging market still in its infant stage. Its number of retail outlets in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong are very small and comprises a mere 3% of the company's total sales. These stores were expected to be more successful in the near future. IKEA's imminent strategic expansion into this region exemplified its ambitions to dominate this emerging market. This Case Study illustrates how IKEA's ventures into China and Japan are laden with unique marketing challenges which it had not encountered before in other international markets. Read the attached case (Case Study: "IKEA: A Long March to the Far East" - Source: Oxford University Press) and ...
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...for a similar product within the category that you selected. The two promotional strategies that will be compared are from IKEA and Pottery Barn. IKEA is a Swedish company that sells a wide range of ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances, and home accessories. IKEA’s home furnishings are of good design and functionality offered at a price low enough to be affordable to most people (IKEA, 2014). Pottery Barn is a specialty upscale American-based home furnishing store that was acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1986. Pottery Barn was built on the idea that home design should be exceptional in comfort, quality, style, and value (Pottery Barn, 2014). IKEA’s promotional strategy includes a mix of television advertising, sponsorship, newspaper and magazine advertising. The concept of “democratic design” is portrayed in all of these methods, especially in the iconic IKEA catalog. This design features three elements: form, functionality, and low price (IKEA, 2014). With respect to low price, IKEA customers play an important role by driving to the store, selecting the flat-packed product from warehouse, transporting the product home, and finishing by assembling the product themselves. Having the customer complete this labor is all what helps contribute to the low pricing commitment. IKEA has targeted young married couples and first time home owners by marketing a contemporary lifestyle of enthusiasm (Douglas & Craig, 2011). The image branding has become a household signal of arrival...
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... 3.0 ……………………………………………………………….Product 4.0 …………………………………Product/Market Expansion Grid 5.0 …………………………………………….Environmental Analysis 6.0 ………………………………………The New Development Plan 7.0 …………………………………………………………...Conclusion Introduction: IKEA was founded in 1943, by 17 year-old Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden, the company is named as an acronym comprising the initials of the founder’s name, the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd, in Smaland, South Sweden) . From the heart of the Swedish mountains, the idea of IKEA developed in a way to establish a relationship between its customers and everyday living environment. After its success, the company has opened 253 stores in 24 countries in 2008. Today IKEA is the world’s largest home furniture retail shop; they have a different concept for shopping. While families are choosing their own home designed furniture, they could rest in one of IKEA’s restaurant that serves Swedish food, or just buy the groceries from the designated shop in IKEA. Their concept differs from the usual idea of shopping; it combined an affiliation between economy and environment, to have the most suitable prices matching the daily lives of each one of us. In this project research, we discussed the prospects and intimidations of such a company in the market, the product suggested in the research would be a huge success in the commerce field. We have also provided an environmental analysis for the company in the research...
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...A VERY BRIEF MARKETINGPLAN 2/26/2013 Ikea as an example – Pooneh Tabei “The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.” is strategic planning tool and is placed as the first stage in marketing plan. The goal is to help the company focus on key terms and ultimately reach its objectives. Strengths & Weaknesses – internal aspects and is under the company’s internal control. Opportunities & Threats – external factors and is outside of the company’s internal control. 1) Strong global brand, which promises quality. 2) Strong concept offering design, quality & functionality at low prices. 3) Strong attractive vision statement. 1) Growing demand to eviromentaly friendly products. 2) Growing demand for low-price products with regard to current global financial trends. 1) Size & scale of global business, which makes the controling aspect difficult. 2) Employment working conditions not the same in all countries. 1) New entries to the low-price home furnished industry. 2) Global economic recession affecting comsumer purchase behaviour. Values creating factors & partners 1) Very costumer centered 2) Strong network & Ikeas as a hub company of network 1) Co-creator of value Strong involvement in value creation Well-informed about their role 2) Highly efficient logistics Central role in the network chain ...
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...IKEA: Ecommerce Expansion/ IT Capacity Management Information System Initiative LASA 1 Organizational Structure IKEA currently holds the position as the world’s largest furniture retail chain, with 332 locations, in 32 countries worldwide. IKEA is operated and owned by an array of no-for-profit corporations. The Organizational Structure is divided into two main entities: Franchising and operations. Many of IKEA’s operations, including the manufacturing and design of products, the managerial operations, and the supply-chain processes, are overseen by INGHKA Holding, which is private, for-profit Dutch Corporation. INGHKA Holding currently runs 235 of the IKEA stores, the remaining are operated and ran by franchises that are outside of INGHKA Holding. IKEA has differentiate themselves from their competitors, by satisfying the needs and wants of their consumers, with upholding a value proposition that is center on providing, high-quality products (furniture), at affordable prices. IKEA’s value proposition differentiated them from their competitors, secured competitive advantage and positioned themselves as the leader in furniture retailer, on a global level, by their value-based services, and marketing mix that emphasizes on areas such as: Location, Merchandise, Store Format, Market Communications, and Service and Selling Environment, which produced a remarkable “brand image”; “The essential role of brands is to differentiate a product or service from others in satisfying a...
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...Company Description IKEA started up with the woods of southern Sweden with the inspiration by the founder at 1943 in Switzerland. The founder of IKEA is Ingvar Kamprad. The company name is inspire by the first letter of the name of founder, Ingvar Kamprad (IK) and the name of the place that he grew up, Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd (EA). IKEA’s vision is “to create a better everyday life for the many people” (IKEA/MY/EN, 2014). Besides that, the company’s business idea is to offer a wide range of well designed, functional home furnishing products at affordable prices so there will be many people able to purchase them (IKEA/MY/EN, 2014). Now, IKEA had established in about 40 countries with 345 stores, such as France, China, United States and so on and it’s still growing. IKEA is positioning as good quality furniture with low price. IKEA is known as a values driven company with a passion for life at home (IKEA /GB/EN, 2014). IKEA has offers varieties of home furnishing products with affordable price to people. IKEA furnishing products are designed to let customers easy to carry back to home and install it by themselves. IKEA promote that the furnishing products provided is a way to a beautiful home to fulfill with love and make life better. IKEA’s stores decorated in a way that how actual home look like. This design is making for the convenient of people to get inspiration on what to put in their home by choosing the products they want. IKEA’s furnishing products can be classified...
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...Running Head: IKEA ANALYSIS REPORT Josephine Apuri Argosy University Atlanta IKEA’S marketing IKEA’s products and services are geared towards the overall satisfaction of the needs and wants of every individual customer that walked through their doors, looks them up on the internet or flips through the pages of their catalog. The founder of Ikea Ingvar Kamprad stated that what is good for their customers is also in the long run good for ikea. Their goal is to create a better everyday life for majority of the people. The starting point for Ikea is always, their customer’s needs and wants. That is why Kamprads idea was to offer a wide range of home furnishings of good design and functionality at a price low enough to be afforded by most people (Edvardsson and Enquist, 2006.) Most customers would want to go shopping and not feel pressured to buy, thus Ikea has very few sales people on the floor, and they are rather more of a help aid in locating the items which are stored at the market hall section, often located at the end of the store. They also have special QR codes in case a customer wants to learn more about a specific product. With Ikea’s concentration on individual marketing rather than mass marketing, also takes into consideration the needs and wants of each country. For instance beds are bigger for the U.S customer (Marketing Week, 1996.) Austria’s taste for seventies corner sofas are satisfied too .A majority of Ikea’s stores are located outside of cities centers...
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...Ikea Strategy in China I. Ikea strategy in China II. Comparison Supor, ASD and Ikea (regarding to cookware) Sources I. Ikea in China IKEA has been in the Chinese market for more than 10 years. Ikea is used to be perceived as having low prices, this also one of the competitive cornerstones of the whole concept of Ikea. But this is not the case in China: here the perception is a fairly exclusive western retailer, a store for the higher middle class. The company realized this and started targeting the young middle class population, which are between 25 and 35 who have relatively higher incomes than the average and a higher education than the average. They are often more open to a Westernized lifestyle, and in most instances. Targeting this segment helped IKEA project itself as an inspirational western brand. This was a huge change in strategy, as IKEA was targeting the mass market in other parts of the world. Chinese see Ikea products as innovative and not traditional. Square tables are for example not traditional (round tables are tradition) and many of the colours used are not traditional to the Chinese. The Chinese Ikea stores have a special set of tea cups for the Chinese...
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...for a similar product within the category that you selected. The two promotional strategies that will be compared are from IKEA and Pottery Barn. IKEA is a swedish company that sells a wide range of ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances, and home accessories. IKEA’s home furnishings are of good design and functionality offered at a price low enough to be affordable to most people (IKEA, 2014). Pottery Barn is a specialty upscale American-based home furnishing store that was acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1986. Pottery Barn was built on the idea that home design should be exceptional in comfort, quality, style, and value (Pottery Barn, 2014). IKEA’s promotional strategy includes a mix of television advertising, sponsorship, newspaper and magazine advertising. The concept of “democratic design” is portrayed in all of these methods, especially in the iconic IKEA catalog. This design features three elements: form, functionality, and low price (IKEA, 2014). With respect to low price, IKEA customers play an important role by driving to the store, selecting the flat-packed product from warehouse, transporting the product home, and finishing by assembling the product themselves. Having the customer complete this labor is all what helps contribute to the low pricing commitment. IKEA has targeted young married couples and first time home owners by marketing a contemporary lifestyle of enthusiasm (Douglas & Craig, 2011). The image branding has become a household signal of arrival...
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...students Na Lin and Sarah Burangi submitted to fulfill the requirements for an MSc in Information Systems particularly the International Marketing Module. The report reflects the success of IKEA in developing its brand internationally. The purpose of this assignment is to give one analysis of the marketing context in which IKEA operates and critical evaluation of its operational options. We would like to thank Fontys and Roehapmton that give us such a good opportunity to work as a group, and we also would like to thank our tutor, Mr. Wijckmans for his instruction. Executive Summary The report gives a detailed account of the IKEA brand development over the years using marketing principles. The first chapter looks at IKEA, the background, evolvement and current position. Chapter two looks at branding in terms of the marketing mix that is product, price, promotion and place. This is the followed by chapter three which looks how IKEA handles cultural differences when conducting business across the world. Chapter four explores the various methods used by IKEA when conducting market research world wide. Chapter five gives an account of the market entry strategy used by IKEA to introduce their brand in new areas. The next chapter then delves into the details of market segmentation, positioning and targeting strategies used by IKEA. The report concludes with a look into the future world trends and their effects on the...
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...International Businesses Strategy of IKEA –Activities of the multinational furniture retailer Seminar paper in “Strategy of International Business” University of Economics Bratislava 2008/2009 Katarzyna Gawor Sona Halasova Friedemann Polzin Table of Contents IKEA – global strategy............................................................................................................2 History................................................................................................................................2 IKEA corporate structure...................................................................................................3 The IKEA Group............................................................................................................3 Inter IKEA Systems B.V. ..............................................................................................5 IKEA Stores...................................................................................................................5 Business strategy...............................................................................................................5 Mission...........................................................................................................................5 Target group..................................................................................................................6 Organizational structure........................................................
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...IKEA - PRODUCT LAUNCH IN INDIA (BANGALORE) Project Submission - 1 Group-7 1. Jai Prasanna Sudhan S.P (1211024) 2. Karthikeyan T (1211029) 3. Kalayappan S (1211103) 4. Ravishankar N (1211134) 5. Karthik P (1211347) Management Decision Problem: To evaluate the market opportunity for IKEA in Bangalore, India Marketing Research Problem: 1. To assess the opportunities for furniture industry in Indian market 2. To identify the segments and target market relevant to the product line of IKEA 3. To determine the branding and positioning strategy for these target segments 4. To evaluate the sustainable competitive advantage of IKEA in Indian market 5. To evaluate the effectiveness of the IKEA retail concept in Indian market Components of MR problem: S.No. | Marketing Research Problem | Components of the problem | 1. | To assess the opportunities for furniture industry in Indian market | i) How attractive is Indian market to invest in furniture industry? ii) Evaluation of Indian organized and unorganized players and their unique features in the market | 2. | To identify the segments and target market relevant to the product line of IKEA | i) What is the customer profile in Bangalore w.r.t age, income, marital status, occupation and socio economic classification? ii) Who are the potential customers for the IKEA products? iii) What are the behavioral characteristics of the targeted customers? | 3. | To determine...
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